The PLO’s International Relations Department said in a press statement that “Blair is unwelcome because he violated his mission as neutral envoy of an international committee that aims at achieving just peace in the region.” The Quartet appointed Blair, Britain’s former prime minister, as its envoy in 2007.
The PLO’s department said that the Quartet’s envoy “has become a spokesman for Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, and this was clear when he tried to form the Quartet’s last statement which adopted the Israeli demands at the expense of the Palestinian just and legitimate ones,” said the statement.
The Palestinians have strongly slammed Blair for his support for Israel’s demands to resume the peace talks with the Palestinians and called for his replacement. In a statement last month, the Quartet urged the Palestinian Authority and Israel to return to the negotiating table based on a new time line of December 2012 by which a final status agreement would end the conflict.
The Quartet, which includes the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, said it wanted to see comprehensive proposals within three months on territory and security, and substantial progress within six months.
The Quartet’s statement came after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas submitted a formal application to the UN Security Council for recognition of a Palestinian state. Israel has opposed the statehood proposal, saying that Palestine must settle its outstanding issues with Israel on a bilateral level before pursuing UN statehood. Abbas has refuted this, saying that seeking statehood at the UN in no way cancels out bilateral peace talks.
Riad Al-Malki, the Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister, said at the time that the Quartet’s proposal “isn’t sufficient because it does not call for a settlement freeze and an Israeli forces withdrawal to the 1967 lines.”
On Sunday, the Quartet held a meeting in Brussels and urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume the direct peace talks immediately.
Hanan Ashrawi, member of PLO’s Executive Committee and head of its Media and Culture Department, told the Voice of Palestine Radio the Quartet’s call “is an attempt to get out of the crisis the negotiations has been in for a year.”
“The Palestinians would rebuff going ahead on the previous peace talks track and repeat the same experience of failure amid the current diplomatic activities, mainly the Palestinian bid to the UN Security Council for a statehood,” Ashrawi said.
Disputes over settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem were the major reason for suspending the direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians since September 2010.
